In acute kidney injury, renal tubular cells are damaged and inflammatory cells are recruited to resolve the injury by helping to restore the local tissue environment. However, if inflammatory cells fail to resolve the injury, this leads to myofibroblast activation, deposition of collagen and build-up of fibrosis. In aged kidneys, the resolution of the inflammation is delayed. By contrast, paracrine factors released by mesenchymal stromal cells acting as regenerative medicine therapies can modulate the inflammatory response and lead to resolution by promoting anti-inflammatory immune cells. How this endogenous regenerative process is regulated across different age groups, and how the inflammatory response can be modulated either in ageing, or through therapeutic intervention, is not well understood. Specifically, the interplay between inflammatory cells, damaged kidney cells and cytokines needs further detailed analysis, which can serve as an exemplar for processes of tissue inflammation and resolution in other organs systems.